DistroWatch Weekly

A weekly opinion column and a summary of events from the distribution world

DistroWatch Weekly

DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 252, 12 May 2008

Welcome to this year's 19th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! It's a Fedora week here at DistroWatch. A new version of the popular distribution will be released later this week, complete with the usual cutting edge features, such as KDE 4, dramatic speed improvements, support for the ext4 file system and many others. One popular application set missing from the distro, however, is KDE 3.5, now relegated to the dustbins of history by the project. If you are a Fedora KDE user, should you upgrade or should you not? Read our first-impressions review of Fedora 9 KDE to obtain some answers. In the news section, openSUSE presents several user interface improvements for its package manager, Ubuntu prepares to deliver cool new features in Intrepid Ibex, Attila Craciun introduces the Slackware-based Bluewhite64 Linux, and PC-BSD updates its artwork and fixes bugs in preparation for the 7.0 release. Also included are several resources to help you manage your OpenSolaris system better and an interesting update on Oracle Enterprise Linux. Happy reading!

Don't you sometimes feel like changing your computer, your desktop and your applications to something radically different? Just for fun? If so, you are in a good company of your DistroWatch maintainer. Last week, after discovering a leaked installation DVD image of Fedora 9 on one of the project's mirrors, I decided to take the plunge and upgrade my production installation of Fedora 8. I was well aware of the risks - after all, Fedora has become one of the most cutting-edge distributions in recent years, with plenty of experimental features and no shortage of up-to-date, but relatively untested applications. But at the same time, the Fedora developers have acquired a reputation for being capable of turning the latest Linux technologies into a highly polished and stable desktop.

The main problem with upgrading to Fedora 9 was the fact that I am a KDE user. This meant that, after the upgrade, my long-established and well-customised KDE 3.5 desktop would become a reportedly feature-incomplete and buggy KDE 4.0, the only KDE in Fedora 9. Would I still be a KDE user after the weekend? Or would I have to switch to another distribution, one that still ships with KDE 3.5 or at least gives an option to install it alongside version 4.0? But such was my desire for a fresh desktop that I simply inserted the x86_64 edition of the Fedora 9 installation DVD and went on to upgrade my system. This went well and less than an hour later I was greeted with a brand new desktop look.

And an exciting one it was too! In fact, the change was so overwhelming that it almost felt as if I had switched my entire operating system to a completely new code base. Yes, there was the odd established behaviour and one or two features that I recognised as being part the old KDE, but overall it just didn't feel like KDE at all. Although I kept my home partition and desktop configuration from the previous installation, many of the settings just disappeared after booting into the new KDE. Needless to say, a major loss of productivity followed as soon as I started using my favourite applications and I had to look for various workarounds and new routines in place of the old habits, firmly entrenched in my subconsciousness after years of using KDE 3! My initial reaction was that of a dismay, to put it mildly.

KDE 4.0.3 will be the only KDE desktop available in Fedora 9 when it ships later this week.(image size: 421kB; screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)

But slowly, in the space of one weekend, I was able to re-establish some of the old behaviour and configurations, or find ways around the existing limitations. For Kate, my favourite graphical text editor, I was able to restore its old look through some of the available plugins. KMail, K3B, Kaffeine and Amarok all worked without any problems at all. Konsole was a bit more troublesome - it used to be able to remember the number of open tabs (and locations) from a previous session, but this behaviour seems to be no longer there. However, in terms of loss of features, the worst application by far has to be Konqueror. Once a highly customisable and even enjoyable file manager, Konqueror in KDE 4.0.3 is barely usable (you can't even copy or move files from the main window to the navigation panel, the one invoked with the F9 key?) and outrageously buggy. Dolphin is not much better either. Other annoyances include the Backspace key, which only works as expected half of the time in certain applications, pasting with the middle button, which is mostly a hit, but sometimes a miss, and the KDE spellchecking tool, which works in some applications (e.g. KMail), but not in others (e.g. Kate).

While these little bugs can be very annoying at times, there is one thing that compensated for all the shortcomings of the new KDE: its speed. I don't know if I should attribute this remarkable achievement to Fedora 9 or to KDE 4 (or maybe even to GCC 4.3?), but the fact is that the KDE 4 desktop in Fedora 9 is just so much snappier and more responsive than the KDE 3 desktop in Fedora 8. This is also true of Firefox 3.0b5 where everything happens so much faster, something that is especially noticeable on AJAX-powered web sites. This is probably the major reason why I will stay with KDE 4 and Fedora 9 for the foreseeable future - it is just so much faster than anything I have used on this particular machine (except perhaps some of the run-from-memory mini-distributions, such as SliTaz GNU/Linux or AUSTRUMI)!

As for Fedora 9 itself, I can't say it was a completely smooth experience. The PHP package still ships without support for SQLite, the only distribution that purposely disables this standard and well-tested PHP feature (as with Fedora 8, I had to download the source RPM package for PHP 5.2.6, remove the offending "--without-sqlite" parameter from its "spec" file and rebuild the RPM in order to be able to view DistroWatch.com locally). Some applications, such as Liferea and gFTP failed to launch on my upgraded x86_64 box, although both worked fine on an i386 test machine (new installation). I worked around the Liferea problem by downloading a newer version of the application that I found on the Internet, and I resolved the gFTP issue by switching to FileZilla instead. Both Liferea and FileZilla have been running fine since then.

When comparing Fedora 8 with Fedora 9, the newer version seems more stable. On Fedora 8, I had many problems with some applications that crashed regularly (KTorrent was the most notorious one) and others that did not always work as expected (K3B would sometimes report that it couldn't find any CD/DVD burner) - no such problems on Fedora 9. The X window system of Fedora 8 crashed at least once a week, but this was probably due to the combination of the proprietary NVIDIA driver and Compiz, something that I have yet to enable on my new system. Generally, I've found that the initial release of Fedora 8 was somewhat shaky in terms of stability of applications, but it became progressively better after it started receiving regular updates. I expect the same will be true in Fedora 9.

So if you are Fedora KDE user and expect some sort of a recommendation whether to upgrade to Fedora 9 or stay with Fedora 8, I would (somewhat reluctantly) say "go for the upgrade". Expect some major functionality loss, however, especially if you do a lot of file management in Konqueror, and you'll also get fewer options for configuring some of the important areas of KDE, including the desktop itself and the KDE panel. What you do get in exchange is much increased speed, a potentially more functional desktop with sexy widgets, and a faster Firefox. Best of all, you'll become part of building and testing the next-generation KDE desktop. Much depends on your own personality, but if you are a computing enthusiast who enjoys testing new things as they evolve, then Fedora 9 with KDE 4 should be an interesting choice.

As far as the Linux distribution release calendar is concerned, this week belongs to the Fedora project. Although the official release of Fedora 9 is only scheduled for Tuesday, the installation DVD images started appearing on some of the project's mirrors as early as Thursday last week - almost a week in advance. If you haven't had the chance to go through the Fedora 9 feature list, here are some of the highlights of the new product: Linux kernel 2.6.25 with glibc 2.8, Perl 5.10.0 and GCC 4.3.0; a pre-release of X.Org Server 1.5; GNOME 2.22 and KDE 4.0.3; Upstart (a replacement for SysVInit), introduction of TeXLive (a replacement for TeTeX); PackageKit, an alternative package management system, support for the XRandR extension for configuring output devices; Firefox 3.0b5; support for ext4 and encrypted file system; various speed improvements, including start-up and shut-down speed of the X server and improved package installation speed. As always, there is a lot more, but we will have to wait until Tuesday to read the release notes. If you are the impatient one, LinuxTracker.org has the i386 DVD torrent.

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Another distribution that is counting days until its final release is openSUSE. With just 38 days to go until the long-awaited version 11.0 hits the download mirrors, details about various new features and updates keep emerging on openSUSE blogs. Stephan Binner in Qt Package Manager Improvements: "Just want to point out four improvements of the YaST Qt package selector in the upcoming openSUSE 11.0 that were missing too long, much requested (at least by me) and now added. The first screenshot shows the new special package groups 'Suggested packages' and 'Recommended packages' to list packages which enhance your installed packages. Also the strange 'zzz All' package group of previous releases is renamed to 'All packages' and visible without endless scrolling. On the second screenshot you can see the new '@System' meta repository to list all installed packages only. And note the new secondary filter 'Unmaintained packages' to detect which packages are not contained in your activated repositories."

In contrast, the developers of Ubuntu can relax in the knowledge that their next release is not due until we are well into the fourth quarter of 2008. That's not to say that they aren't devising new competitive features for Intrepid Ibex; in fact, according to South Africa's MyADSL web site, the next release of Ubuntu Linux promises to be packed with cool features: "Announcing plans for Ubuntu 8.10 earlier this year Ubuntu chief, Mark Shuttleworth, said that 'a particular focus for us will be pervasive Internet access, the ability to tap into bandwidth whenever and wherever you happen to be. We want you to be able to move from the office, to the train, and home, staying connected all the way'. Also to be expected with Intrepid is a new desktop look which has been in the development for the past year. The new look was meant to debut in Hardy Heron but was held back. Also on the desktop, the timing is right for OpenOffice.org version 3.0 to be included in the Intrepid release so long as the planned September release date for OpenOffice is met. OpenOffice 3.0 includes a number of new features, from better document support to spreadsheet collaboration, that will make it a more compelling office suite."

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Small distributions and its developers rarely feature in mainstream Linux publications, so it's always a pleasant surprise if they get some attention. Last week, Linux.com published an interview with Attila Craciun, the founder and lead developer of the Slackware-based Bluewhite64 Linux: "The standard version of Bluewhite64 Linux is a complex, open source operating system that runs on single and multi-core AMD64 Sempron, Athlon, Opteron, Turion 64, Phenom, and Intel EM64T servers and workstations. It strictly follows Slackware's development line, offering the same user experience as Slackware does on the 32-bit Intel architecture. Apart from the standard edition, I've also created three live editions, namely LiveDVD, LiveUSB, and miniLive. These editions have their roots in the standard edition and offer extra packages created by the Bluewhite64 community and me. The purpose of these live editions is to serve as a preview to those who wish to try the standard edition but don't want to install it yet."

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The new OpenSolaris 2008.05 keeps generating comments and reviews around the Internet. However, the desktop operating system from Sun Microsystems is no Linux and many reviewers seem to make a mistake of expecting to find in OpenSolaris applications and utilities that are common on Linux or BSD systems. Luckily, help is never far away. A Sun.com blogger has written a quick guide to basic tasks on OpenSolaris, explaining how to set up NIS and install a number of applications: "At Sun there are tools which we've distributed with Solaris internally through NIS auto mount maps and other things which all depended on NIS. Now with the new OpenSolaris installer a number of us are finding we've forgotten how to get NIS setup on a machine and have never setup Real Media RealPlayer, Adobe Flash, or even OpenOffice.org." Also not to be missed - a a panel discussion about IPS, the OpenSolaris package management utility.

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Another week, another new PC-BSD screenshot. The fast development cycle of PC-BSD continued last week with the second alpha release of version 7.0, derived from the latest stable FreeBSD code: "This week we've fixed up a number of the problems reported over the past week, as well as improved the theme a bit more. Also, a new KSM theme manager has been added, so you can theme the shutdown screen in KDE now. The NVIDIA drivers have also been re-compiled for FreeBSD 7, and should work properly." Download the installation CD image from here: PCBSD7Alpha-x86-05092008.iso (685MB, MD5).

While on the subject of the BSD operating systems, here is a note from a DistroWatch reader who wants to let everybody know about a new BSD forum: "The de-facto (unofficial) standard for a long time has been bsdforums.org - which you are also redirected to when you visit {free,net,open}bsdforums.org. There has, however, in recent months been a massive influx of spam to these forums, resulting in many hundreds of posts daily containing explicit content. The unfortunate thing is that the administrator of the forums is very much incommunicado, and when people do manage to touch base with him he has thus far offered nothing but empty promises of countermeasures being put in place. As a result of his neglect, many of the key members have formed a new community with more moderators and active administrators. This new community can be found at daemonforums.org and contains all the sub-forums its predecessor did. In addition to BSD support it also contains sub-forums for Linux, Solaris, Windows, Mac OS, etc."

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We don't hear often about Oracle Enterprise Linux, a distribution launched by the database specialist with the objective of undermining Red Hat's business model by offering low-cost Linux support. Here is an interesting update on the product, courtesy of a web site called Practical Technology: "Oracle's Unbreakable Linux is something of an odd-duck in Linux distribution circles. While Oracle, the database giant, produces it, under the Oracle paint job it's all RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). In addition, while Oracle stands behind its distribution with support, Oracle doesn't think of itself as being in the Linux distribution business. What does it all mean and why does Oracle have one foot in the Linux business? For the answers to these and other questions, Edward Screven, Oracle's Chief Corporate Architect, recently spoke with Jim Zemlin, head of the Linux Foundation."

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Finally, after giving KDE 4 more exposure than ever before in DistroWatch Weekly, here is an interesting title that any KDE programmer should have in his or her collection and one of the first books on developing applications for KDE 4: C++ GUI Programming with Qt4 (2nd Edition) by Jasmin Blanchette and Mark Summerfield (Prentice Hall). This review at Blogspot gives the book 9 stars out of 10: "What I really like about this book are the realistic examples which are used to introduce each Qt control or concept. There are plenty of images scattered within, which impart visual appeal to the book. Moreover, these images hopefully give the reader an idea about the correct way of designing their software. Going through this book, I find that the authors have explained different scenarios of developing programs in Qt 4 exhaustively without overwhelming the reader. Each program is split into digestible chunks of code with detailed explanation succeeding them. This makes it quite easy to understand what each line of code accomplishes. ... All in all, this is a great book not just for any neophyte in Qt but also for the accomplished Qt programmer to use as a ready reference."

Here it is: the first stable release from Project Indiana, OpenSolaris 2008.05: "From dorm room to boardroom. OpenSolaris has everything you need to take your brilliant idea, build a prototype, test it, deploy it, and run it on production servers -- out of a loft, or across your enterprise. And when your application goes viral, you won't have to throw hardware at the problem, or switch to a different OS. OpenSolaris is industrial strength and built to scale from the get go. The live CD makes it simple to boot to a fully functional desktop environment, including Firefox and Thunderbird. Try it without fear -- our instant rollback feature works like a giant undo button, so your system is always protected, and you'll never lose work. And, you can load OpenSolaris 2008.05 easily in a variety of virtualization technologies including the open source VirtualBox hypervisor." Visit the newly revamped OpenSolaris web site to learn more about Solaris on the desktop.

Patrick Verner has announced the release of Parted Magic 2.2, a specialist live CD distribution designed to facilitate hard disk management tasks: "This is another update / bug-fix in the 2.0 series. I dropped VisParted because strong development is coming from the GParted camp once again. Recent updated to PCManFM have made some new things possible on the desktop and improved the look and feel. All mountable partitions and CD-ROMs are fully supported from the desktop now, so it's never been easier to access files from Parted Magic. You will find most of the bad bugs and annoyances from 2.1 have been fixed." Visit the project's news page and check out the latest changelog for more information about Parted Magic 2.2.

Jürg Billeter has announced the release of paldo GNU/Linux 1.14, an independently developed, hybrid source/binary distribution with a custom package management tool: "We are pleased to announce the release of paldo GNU/Linux 1.14 with many bug fixes and updates. During this development cycle we integrated some major changes. One of the bigger moves was the update to GNOME 2.22, which brought many new features, such as better support for network file systems, a polished Evolution, and some window compositing eye-candy. Another nice improvement is the addition of OpenOffice.org 2.4. The kernel has been updated to version 2.6.24 to support the latest technologies and drivers. Further enhancements to point out: Pidgin 2.4.1, MonoDevelop 1.0, AbiWord 2.6.0, Anjuta 2.4.1." Visit the project's home page to read the full release announcement.

Lunar is a source based Linux distribution with a unique package management system which builds each software package, or module, for the machine it is being installed on. Though it can take a while to do a complete Lunar installation it's worth it as it tends to be quite fast, once installed! In the beginning Lunar was a fork of Sorcerer GNU Linux (SGL). The fork occurred in late January to early February of 2002 and was originally made up of a small group of people who wanted to collaboratively develop and extend the Sorcerer technology. The original name for the project was Lunar-Penguin but the group decided to re-christen it Lunar Linux while the Lunar-Penguin name has become a sort of umbrella which the team could use if they decide to collaboratively develop something besides Lunar Linux.